f-stop Gear Lotus with Medium Slope
f-stop Gear Lotus with Medium Slope
f-stop Gear Lotus with Medium Slope
f-stop Gear Lotus with Medium Slope

f-stop Gear Lotus with Medium Slope

R 10,198.00 R 6,119.00
/
Tax included.
6 in stock
Color

Included in this bundle

f-stop Gear Clearance

It is with great sadness that we announce our road with f-stop Gear coming to an end. F-stop Gear was the first brand we imported and a keystone of our founding ethos - premium, readily available products. Unfortunately it has always been cursed with duties, which pushes a fairly priced premium product into unaffordability. Combined with the gradual decline of the Rand, there simply aren't enough people in SA willing to pay the price. 

Clearance Bundles

We have created bundles with the last stock, now available at a massive 40% discount. You will see that most items are no longer available separately.

  • We have just enough to fulfil bundles so we can't split, change or swop any items/bundles. 
  • Please note that we are out of gatekeeper straps and our current stock is of the latest generation, which shipped without them.
  • We do not offer returns or refunds on f-stop Gear clearance deals, unless faulty out of the box. 
  • We will honour the full manufacturer warranty until it expires.

A massive thank you to everyone who has supported the brand over the years. We are sad to say goodbye, but we've put aside a little personal stash for ourselves. This is your very last chance to get the f-stop Gear system locally at an unbeatable price. You snooze, you lose 😉. 

Why are f-stop Gear products so expensive in SA?

People like to jump to the conclusion that it is because someone in the local supply chain is making a lot of money, but unfortunately for us, that is not the case. *Photo
by Brendon Wainwright

The real answer is import duty.

Virtually all backpacks or backpack systems are subject to a whopping 30% import tax. These taxes are supposed to protect local manufacturers by giving them a competitive edge against the rest of the globe. It works well to protect local businesses and jobs, but unfortunately in a situation like this, where there is no local competition for a product like fstop gear, it just enriches the tax collector.

If you consider the cost of the Tilopa in America at $399, you can calculate the correlating local price by multiplying it by x1.45 (15% VAT + 30% import duty).

$399*US price x 1.45*tax = $578
$578 x R18.40*exchange rate = R10 653
Our price R8 595

*based on prices and exchange rate as Feb 2023

We know it’s tempting to buy it in the US and have it shipped here, but you will be slapped with the same 45% taxes when it has to go through customs. It is also worth noting that in a small market like SA, importers have smaller margins because we cannot benefit from the economy of scale as similar brands can in the large first world markets.

We barely scrape a profit on this brand - we import it because like most photographers, we tried multiple bags from multiple brands and hated every single one. Fstop gear is the only company that makes a comfortable, practical, high quality backpack for adventurous photographers.